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Rec. zool. Surv. : 102 (Part 1-2) : 1-5, 2004

A NOTE ON THE OF TAWANG DISTRICT,

J R B ALFRED, A. MURMu, P. C. MAZUMDER AND S. CHAUDHURI Zoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata-700 053

INTRODUCTION

Arunachal Pradesh, the land of dawn-lit mountains with all its forest and wildlife resources sequesters at the farthest point of the north-east region of the country. Tawang, one of the ten districts, appearing just like a speak of the vast stretch of its state's terrain is situated at 90°45' to 92°15' N latitude and 27°22' to 27°45' E longitude with an area of 2085 sq. km. Tawang, the westernmost district of the state; two-third of the area is of high mountaneous region bounded by () in the north, in the south-west and West Kameng district (AP) on the east accommodates only 28,287 human population (2001 census). The climate of the ~istrict is of temperate nature, moderate in summer and remain much below the freezing point during the winter. Rainfall in the district reasonably high during monsoon (May to September). Steep high mountaneous ranges run elsewhere in the plummer down to the green valleys where they together with other tributaries finally meet the . Forest is the main economy in the state, but Tawang depends mainly on agriculture and tourists. The district has only one social forestry division with two forest ranges and five non-account:beats. There is no Reserve Forest and no Protected Forest in the district. Recently two Anchal Reserve Forests have been proposed comprising of 405 hec. of land.

No wonder the state has been a dream of naturalists. Many a number of expeditions, surveys have been undertaken by the naturalists of national and intematiQnallevels. But possibly, no attempt on primates survey have been made in the district of Tawang. Therefore, keeping the view in mind, a preliminary survey to the montane forests and river valleys in the south and north-west parts of the district has been carried out during the month of May, 2002. The monkey groups that were encountered during the survey was Assamese , Macaca assamensis. The other species which occur at Tawang is capped langur, Trachypithecus pileatus, which inhabits in the inaccessible terrain and rarely come in the villages or roadside forests at lower elevation. They are shy but true arboreal in the district. The "Pere Davis" macaque, Macaca thibetana, endemic to China to E. Tibet, Szechwan to Kwangtung ( Pocock, 1939 ) and the Stump tailed macaque, Macaca a rcto ide s , reported to occur at Tawang, could not be located m the present survey even inquires from local people and Forest Department not confirmed its presence in the study area. 2 RECORDS OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA

However, the occurence of Pere Davis macaque can not be ruled out at this stage till a detail investigation is made. The characteristic physical appearance of the Assamese macaque at Tawang was close to description of other authors (Pocock, 1939; Roonwal and Mohnot, 1977). The monkeys were bigger in size and dark coat colour at Tawang as compared to individuals seen at lower elevation might have confused the observers reporting the possible occurence of a new species. A perusal of literature revealed that Macaca assamensis inhabits the foothills of the Himalayas and adjoining mountain ranges in (Hill and Bernstein, 1969; Fooden, 1989). The Assamese macaque belonigs to sinica group of macaque together with Macaco sinica, Macaca radiata and Macaco thihetana (Fooden, 1982 ).

The present survey revealed that Assamese macaque population is fairly common in the south and north-western parts of Tawang. This monkey inhabits in the montane forests. As the terrain is highly undulating, point method mostly followed for locating monkeys. Transect was not found suitable due to the natiJre of terrain, so that count and sweep sampling method were followed at river valley basins. About 70 sq. km. was searched mostly on foot in roads and walking trails in forbsts and using a slow moving vehicle on roads. Assamese macaque were encountered from LumIa to Zemithang and between Jang and Tawang (Fig. 1). All the groups were bisexual and composed of adult males, adult females, juveniles and infants. Areas surveyed and location of monkeys were shown in fig. 1. The distribution and social structure of this species that were recorded shown in table 1.

During the survey 12 groups of Assamese macaque were sighted in forest and roadside forests. The 12 groups of monkeys composed 320 individuals of which 39 were adult males, 184 adult females, 57 juveniles and 60 infants. The group size varied from 17 to 47 individuals. The average consisted of 3.25 adult males, 13.66 adult females. 4.75 juveniles and 5.0 infants (Table 1). The sex rdtio of adult male to adult female was 1 : 4.2 and adult female to juvenile and infant ware 1 : 0.35 and 1 : 0.37 respectively. Maximum concentration monkeys were recorted in and around Zemithang, the north western part of the district. Out of 12 groups 8 groups were sighted at Zemithang areas with a total 221 monkeys. The percentage composition of the monkeys were 10.86% infants. The sex ratio of adult male to adult female was 1 : 4.67 and female to combined juveniles and infants was 1 : 0.76. The sex ratio of adult male to adult female at Zemithang groups was higher that the groups of other areas. The 320 monkeys counted at Tawang district which consisted of 12.19% adult males, 51.25% adult females, 17.810/0 and 18.75% were juveniles and infants respectively.

The Assamese macaque of Tawang frequently invaded the cultivated fields causing much dam.age of the standing crop and vegetables. Due to advantage of valley and river the people of Zemithang areas produce rice. ind vegetables more than other parts of the district. ALFRED et al. : A note on the primates of Tawang district, Arunachal Pradesh 3

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Figs. 1. Distribution of assamese Macaque in survey areas. RECORDS OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA 4 Table 1. Group size and composition of Assamese macaque at Tawang district. Sl./Group Location Total Adult Adult Juveniles Infants No. Males Females 1. 5 km from Gipsu near 25 4 12 5 4 BTK.

2. 12 km South of Luma to 20+ 3 10 4 3 Zemithang

3. 6 km from Jang to 35 5 19 7 4 Bomdila

4. Lhou village 12 km from 19 3 11 2 3 Tawang to Bomdila

5. Muchuk, Zemithang 47 4 20 13 10

6. Muchuk, Near foot 32 3 15 6 8 bridge, Zemithang

7. Player falls, Zemithang 23 3 12 4 4

8. Gorsum, Zemithang 17 2 10 2 3

9. Kharman, Zemithang 26 3 14 4 5

10. Lumpu, Zemithang 19 2 11 2 4

11. Umpo, near Zemithang 35 4 18 5 8

12. Socksant Village, near 22 3 12 3 4 Zemithang

Total 320 39 164 57 60

Average 26.67 3.25 13.67 4.75 5.0

0/0 - 12.19 51.25 17.81 18.75

Ready availability of food and good shelter in the hill forests may be the reasons for more concentration of monkeys in these areas. The people of Tawang are much tolerant towards the monkey menace of the fact, they are Buddhist in faith moreover the 6-th Dalai Lama was born at Urgelling Village near Tawang. Perhaps for these reasons we did not come across any hunter and there was no killing record of monkeys those to be very common in other parts of Aruihachal Pradesh. This preliminary survey in some selected areas of Tawang district revealed that a good number of monkey popUlation still exists there. ALFRED et ale : A note on the primates of Tawang district, Arunachal Pradesh 5

REFERENCES

Fooden,1. 1989. Classification, distribution and ecology of Indian macaque, pp. 33-46 in Prospective in Primate Biology, Vol. 2, New Delhi.

Fooden, J. 1982. and evolution of Sincia group of : 3 species and subspecies accounts of Macaca assamensis : Fieldiana Zoology, New Ser., No. 10. Hill, W. C. O. and Bernstein, I. S. 1969. On morphology, behaviour and systematics status of macaque (Macaca assamensis) Primates 10 : 1-17. Mukherjee, R. P., Chaudhuri, S. and Munnu, A. 1993. Population survey of non-human primates (Mammalia) of . Rec. zool. Surv. India, 93(3-4), 557-564. Pocok, R.I. 1939. Fauna of British India: Mammalia, vol I Taylor and Francis, London Roonwal, M. Land Mohnot, S. M. 1977. Primates of South Asia: Ecology, Sociobiology and Behaviour. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.